Italian Zucchini Noodle Turkey Burger Patty

When I first began Inspiralized, I told myself that the people who were coming to my blog wanted pasta and noodle substitutes.

So, for the first year, I really focused on just doing that. I made Italian pastas, Asian noodle bowls, and even replaced ramen noodles in buns.

Then, I started to branch off. “People want to simply get creative with their veggies! Help them do that.”

From there, I started finding fun ways to incorporate vegetables into traditional dishes. Or, I would simply take a favorite dish and replace the vegetable with its spiralized counterpart.

Sneaking vegetables into your every day favorites is the beauty in Inspiralized – without knowing you’re eating veggies, you are.

I sat down with a pen and paper, put SG Lewis’s Warm on repeat and told myself I could leave until I came up with a creative twist on America’s classic: the burger.

At first, I thought, “Oh, well how about I top the burger with some crispy spiralized sweet potatoes?”

That turned to, “How about I just make a sweet potato burger?” No, no one’s going to want to replace a juicy burger with a carby patty.

Next? “Why don’t I just put a burger atop a bed of spiralized veggies?” Already did that in my cookbook.

Lo and behold, I came up with the idea to add spiralized zucchini into Italian-seasoned ground turkey meat to make a “spiralized burger.”

It worked famously. The moisture in the zucchini keeps the gluten-free burger from becoming a hockey puck. Plus, the zucchini adds flavor and texture to the meal. Most importantly, it’s a sneaky way to eat more vegetables.

I mean, what’s more vegetable unfriendly than a burger? Not any longer!

To complete the meal, serve these burgers with a side salad or some delicious sweet potato fries (I mean, heck, you’re getting your veggies in anyways!) If you really want to go crazy, serve this patty alongside more spiralized veggies (I love this.)

Long story short: use your spiralizer for more than just a pasta substitute – it really can revolutionize the way we perceive and eat vegetables!

Note: You can make 4 small patties or 2 larger, burger-sized patties. The nutritional information below is calculated for 2 large burgers!​

Nutritional Information & Recipe

Weight Watchers SmartPoints*: 6 points

Italian Zucchini Noodle Turkey Burger Patty

Yields 2-4

15 minPrep Time

10 minCook Time

25 minTotal Time

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

For the patty:

1 cup trimmed Blade D zucchini noodles (about 1/2 small zucchini)

1/2 pound ground turkey, lean

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 pinch red pepper flakes

salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients for the patty into a bowl and mix together well. Form two large patties or four smaller ones. Season both sides of the patties with more salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a grill pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, add in the zucchini patties and cook for 5 minutes, flip over and cook another 5 minutes or until turkey is cooked through.

Enjoy over lettuce, in a whole grain bun, on an English muffin or as is, with a side salad or spiralized veggies!

Looks awesome! My favorite thing about my Inspiralizer is that it is the absolute quickest way to prep veggies for cooking, so I love these recipes that give me a fun way to use veggie noodles in a "normal" (non-pasta) dish.!

I made these tonight for dinner and we loved them. I used grass fed beef which was enhanced by the zucchini and added moistness to the patty. My husband who has a hard time dealing with the softness of cooked zucchini did not even notice it was there! Yeah! This was a real winner! I adapted it to be FODMAP compatible by adding garlic chives and leaving out the garlic and onion.

YAYY. I'm on a whole30 right now (like the worst... but best? month of my life) and I'm SO happy to see that I can still visit inspiralized and find stuff I can easily alter or even this one which is FULLY compliant :) (I'm starting to think I'm going to have to give up my blog perusing obsession for a few weeks because I just CANT look at cheesy pizza or decadent baked goods this month... my will power only goes so far)

I am so impressed with this and the rest of the recipes on the site. As a Personal trainer in cardiff I am going to start posting my little attempts at your recipe on my website www.achievingfitness.co.uk I hope you get to see your work spread far and wide. I know my personal training clients in Cardiff (Wales, UK) are about to be inspired.
Thanks
Paul Jenkins

Ooh, I love this idea! Would be great for a healthier meatball sub that way too. My husband can't eat beef or pork so we buy pre-made chicken meatballs but they're expensive and sometimes hard to find. This sounds like an awesome alternative.